Ok, I've decided to form a team to compete for the Google Lunar X Prize! I have two others on board already. My first goal is to form a team with the necessary expertise across all the subsystems necessary to develop the rover and lunar lander:

I plan to ask people mostly from my company as well as perhaps some friends I know at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. Once the team is assembled I plan to approach upper management about funding this project.

Have you thought about how you will raise the registration money or is this something you already have available?

Will be interested to hear how you find getting registered! Look forward to the part after that though!

Rob

I am putting together a presentation to give to Loral's upper management. As part of the presentation I will cover the registration fee and ask if Loral would pay for the registration fee. There is precedent here at Loral for funding engineering projects. From 1997-2003 Loral funded a solar car that competed in international competition. Solar cars are not cheap, with millions of dollars of needed for development and fabrication. Loral didn't give so much in actual cash funding but they did support the team by allowing them to use Loral facilities for fabrication and testing and Loral generously gave over a million dollars in materials, (composite materials, solar cell arrays, battery technology, usage of analysis software like FEA, thermal, etc). To me this is basically the same as receiving a lot of money. IMO Loral has all the facilities needed to design, build, and test a lunar rover and lander. We have various thermal vacuum chambers, vibrations' labs, mass properties labs, propulsion labs, etc. So I'm hoping Loral will come through for us (crosses fingers)

For now this forum of Google lunar X PRIZE is still quite small, but if Adam wants to have his own forum (and he plans to actively use it). I'm all for it. Adam would you like to have one ?

I think perhaps we should wait until I have some firm funding and have a good idea that we will actually build the rover. I wouldn't want you to start a forum just for my team and then the team dies a few months later. For now I can use this thread to post updates and perhaps early next year we can revisit the forum idea. I am most definitely open to forum idea though.

This week I spent time asking some Loral employees if they are interested in joining the team. All three showed varying interest. I hope to hear back from them next week. The most common questions I have been asked is about funding and time commitment.

I've also been researching information and gathering data. I obtained a copy of the Space Falcon 1 User's Guide and the the Eurocket launch vehicle User's Guide. I also found some good books on rover and lander design on the astrobooks.com website. I think this book will be especially useful.

It looks like finding team members is a slower process than I thought. Not everyone is as enthusiastic about this competition as I thought they would be. I've always loved everything about space since I was a child and I read about the NASA astronauts, the X-15 pilots, and Project Daedalus I grew up on the low budget science fiction shows like Star Trek and Space: 1999. Space was always this magical fantasy land to me. As I near 40 I still have the same sense of awe that I did as a child. I've come to realize that most people, even engineers working for an aerospace company, don't necessarily feel the same way about space travel.

I've asked about 7-8 people about joining and the average replay has been lukewarm at best. That has been a bit disappointing but I'll be patient and I will wait to see what happens. I plan to ask several other people as well.

I've asked about 7-8 people about joining and the average replay has been lukewarm at best. That has been a bit disappointing but I'll be patient and I will wait to see what happens. I plan to ask several other people as well.

This is no small task you are asking them to participate in. The project will likely suck up every spare minute they have for the next 3-5 years. If they are worth their salt they must realize this fact. Unless you are prepared to compensate them (regardless of win/loss) as their employer I expect they will be realistic and decline. Even with comparable compensation they are still looking at leaving a good career for a speculative endeavor, after which, they will have to find another job.

You may still hope to find the rare "widely enthusiastic" engineers but you may need to broaden your search beyond your company. These engineers would work for the fun/glory/love of the project and I think these types (such as your self) are best fit for this project. The key (after locating them) will be the effective coordination of a geographically separated design team.

I stumbled across a group of four engineers in the propulsion engineering group that had also formed a team. We met and decided to combine teams. They had done some preliminary mass budget analysis and delta-v calculations.

I spoke to my supervisor about this competition and he suggested I speak to an engineering manager. So I met with this man and we had a productive conversation. He was very positive and supportive of us competing for the Google Lunar X Prize. We spoke about several aspects of the project. He told me that he wants us to write up a proposal and that he would take it to a "spokesman" who is responsible with marketing our company in the aerospace industry. This "spokeman" would present our proposal to upper management.

We've also contacted the CEO of a company that make HD space rated cameras as well.

So things are moving along. Getting our proposal to upper manageemnt is our biggest task for now. Hopefully with hard work and a well written proposal we can convice upper management to sponsor us.